Call it heatstroke (after 4 hrs in the sun coaching my kids’ baseball teams) or sheer heat-induced idiocy, I decided it was time for a crap beer shootout!
Tender readers, never underestimate my commitment to this blog, having just forked over $3.57 (plus tax!) of my hard-earned for three 24 ounce cans of the coldest my local grocery store had to offer. I revisit a college stand-by, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of my beginning college, sample one local favorite that I’ve never sampled, and try out a popular cheap beer that was never really cheap enough for me to bother with back in the days when I was looking for cheap beer.
Stag ($1.29 for a 24 oz. can - Schnuck’s). More color than a lot of American adjunct lagers. Sour malt nose, with some underlying corn, and some graininess. Not as over-poweringly corny as Busch or Miller’s regular strength offerings. Short and somewhat sweet in the mouth. This reminds me very much of Stroh’s after it moved from Detroit to join the House of Heileman – there is a touch of richness, and the corn is not over-played. Having an irrational soft spot for Stroh’s I can understand the local attachment to this.
Pabst Blue Ribbon ($1.29 for a 24 oz. can - Schnuck’s). Husky, grainy, sour malt. Corn is absent from the nose. Maybe even a hint of earthy hop.Very clean, though not much to it. Medium length sour malty finish.
Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor ($1.29 for a 24 oz. can - Schnuck’s). Sweet corn nose, with a hint of hops. Unfortunately, it smells much better than it tastes. Big, fluffy sweet malt dominates the palate, with a hearty whack of corn. There seems to be some bitterness trying to balance, but it’s a lost cause. The finish is sweet and punishingly long. I’m a bit embarassed to say I drank quite a lot of this at college, and was actually expecting it to be my favorite of this tasting (it is “fine” malt liquor after all). It was always less sweet than the other malt liquor options, and at $2 for 2 – 40 oz. bottles, it was a difficult deal for the budget-challenged to pass.
Well, this was actually (and cheap). I’d actually drink the Stag and the PBR if there was nothing craft, and no good whisky, cocktail or wine options, and I absolutely needed a drink (not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know, but there it is). My deepest, most heartfelt apologies to the New Belgium Brewing Company for their fine glass appearing in this post.
